BEE. 
295 
working bee, I was at a loss to say what it was: I 
asked myself if it was new scales forming, and 
whether they cast the old, as the lobster, &c. 
does ? but it was to be found only between the 
scales, on the lower side of the belly. On ex- 
amining the bees through glass hives, while they 
were climbing up the glass, I could see that most 
of them had this substance, for it looked as if the 
lower, or posterior edge of the scale, was doublej 
or that there were double scales : but I perceived 
it was loose, not attached. Finding that the sub- 
stance brought in on their legs was farina, in- 
tended, as appeared from every circumstance, to 
be the food of the maggot, and not to make wax; 
and not having yet perceived any thing that could 
give me the least idea of wax; I conceived these 
scales might be it, at least I thought it necessary 
to investigate them. I therefore took several on 
the point of a needle, and held them to a candle, 
where they melted, and immediately formed 
themselves into a round globe ; upon which I 
no longer doubted but this was the wax, which 
opinion w^as confirmed to me by not finding those 
scales but in the building season. In the bottom 
of the hive we see a good many of the scales 
lying loose, some pretty perfect, others in pieces. 
I have endeavoured to catch them, cither taking 
this matter out of themselves, from between the 
scales of the abdomen, or from one another, but 
never could satisfy myself in this respect: how- 
ever, I once caught a bee examining between the 
scales of the belly of another, but I could not find 
